Recently, the term “brain rot” has gone from meaning chronically online, to a fully fledged meme and ironic slang language. Adam Aleksic, a Harvard linguistics graduate known as ‪@etymology_nerd‬, joins me to break down how the language of the internet is evolving.

We talk about coining slang words for clout, emoji evolution, whether men or women have a bigger effect on language, how incel terms went mainstream, and more!

Later, Zach and I dive into stories from the week including big announcements from Apple’s WWDC, the shadowy right-wing backers behind a Mr Beast video, BeReals big sale, and a new word to describe AI generated garbage.

00:00 - Introduction
01:05 - Who suffers most from brain rot?
01:45 - When did the term 'brain rot' become popularized online?
03:18 - Origins of Sigma and maxxing
04:52 - Gyatt, Rizz, Skibidi, and Fanum Tax
06:31 - How Ohio became the “capital of the internet”
08:38 - How the internet shaped modern language
10:20 - Algospeak
12:21 - Is any of this new?
15:20 - Does Gen Alpha actually speak brain rot?
16:18 - The race to create new slang for clout
18:04 - Emojis role in modern language
19:49 - Identifying new slang terms
22:42 - Mewing and mogging
23:50 - Men vs women in shaping language
26:28 - News rundown starts
26:32 - Big Apple announcements from WWDC
31:54 - BeReal gets acquired
34:58 - MrBeast charity video bankrolled by Charles Koch organization
39:29 - Is slop the new spam?

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